Occult and Pagan Forum

April 2014

It’s been kind of a rough and exhausting year so far. I’ve set a lot of goals for myself, and had a lot of problems motivating myself to achieve them. There is progress, though, and some of those goals have changed. So I want to look at where I’m at and what I’m still working towards.

Career

Develop a workable plan to complete college degree. Complete by End of January. [This will require money and reaching out to disappointed professors.]

The college degree idea had been abandoned for now. It is possible that I may finish it at some point, but I have no planned course of action to do so. As I said in January: “I already hold two bachelors’ degrees, and those count for quite a bit in the job market. By stressing over my master’s, I am discounting the work I have already done.”

The degree was a means to an end, and that end has changed to the point where the degree is no longer a necessary means. The drive to “finish what I started” is an ego-driven meme that I do not at present have the resources to indulge.

Determine ideal career choice and plan to achieve it. Will depend on magical work and plan to finish degree. Hope to have done by June at the latest.

Achievement Taken! I have decided that the best and most obvious course for me to follow was to pursue a career in writing. I am developing a plan that is starting with two freelance job opportunities: one doing transcription work, and one writing freelance content for blogs and websites. This will provide opportunities to build portfolios and experience, and prepare myself for larger projects. It may also allow me to supplement or even replace income from my two current restaurant jobs, enabling me to work fewer hours.

The realizations involved in this process were surprisingly sudden, annoyingly obvious, and while still a but painful to process, not nearly as complicated as I had thought. I do not need to finish my degree program to pursue this path, and I did not need to attain Knowledge and Conversation with my Holy Guardian Angel to come to these realizations.

Find new job according to plan. Hope to achieve withing three months after establishing plan. September by the very latest. [Note: This does depend on what it will take to finish the degree. If I have to come up with $1500 do re-enroll in school, it will take a lot longer than September to accomplish this.]

The “new job” thing hasn’t panned out. I have taken a second part-time job to help with the bills and to be able to afford Heartland this year, and while it is less stressful it is still restaurant work. (I literally got hired on next door to my primary job.) The writings jobs will hopefully start a shift away from my current work, but since that work is freelance, it will be a gradual one.

Magical Work

Attain Knowledge and Conversation with my Holy Guardian Angel. This will need to be done before developing career plan. File under “Screw finding myself, I’m going to cheat and invoke myself.” This may take a while, and I’m not going to be following the strictest rules for this, but I’m hoping for June at the latest. [Biggest issue here is tools, since I’m doing ceremonial magick, and momentum, since this will be a daily thing.]

Yeah, this still hasn’t happened. Given that I was exploring this as a means to “find myself” and establish a proper career path, and I have already done so, this no longer is a priority. I am not inclined enough at present to pursue this as a Great Work for its own sake, and to pursue it at present would be motivated primarily by ego-stroking bragging rights (which is kind of a pointless reason to undertake such a venture). I am wanting to give more attention to Tree of Life pathworking, but K&CwHGA is not something I feel the need to pursue just now.

Revisit astrology studies. I will start with basic natal astrology (by February hope to have it down), relationship astrology (by April), transit astrology (by June), and progressed astrology (by August). By October I should be able to handle teaching someone.

I still wish to take my astrology studies back up, but have done very little to accomplish this. I will attempt the same progress, but with the benchmarkers moved back 4 months. I hope to have basic natal astrology down by June.

Develop and facilitate a class/workshop on tarot. Determine whether the class will cover just the trumps or the entire deck. Determine whether the class will be a local thing or online via Skype. Hope to have it started by March. [I am seeking to acquire seating for my living room. I already have a few people interested in this workshop. I can probably get it underway by the beginning of February if I keep at it.]

This has not yet happened. I am using a hectic schedule and a lack of seating in my apartment as poor excuses. I have decided that it will be an in person class, and that I will begin with the minor cards and basic number theory. If I work at it, I should have a lesson plan worked out by the end of April.

Continue to work out principles of dealing with Empathy. Have at minimum an outline for a series of blogs posts by May, and possibly a book proposal by December. Include a means of explaining basic techniques to others. [My friend Sapphire has asked me to help her with this. This should make it easier to put these concepts and techniques into words.]

Still wanting to work on this, but have had very little actual progress on it. I’m not spending as much time with Sapphire (or anyone, for that matter), and we haven’t worked on anything related to this. Time and distance are issues. I will have to make a better effort here.

Make an effort at least once a month to visit an outdoor wildish space and connect with the spirits there.

Yeah, no. This has not happened. Weather has been shit and I have been exhausted.Now that storm season is starting up, I may be able to get to the park once in a while. Blog posts or videos about my trips may help motivate me.

To this I am adding three new goals: 1) Complete the exercises outlined in Jason Miller’s Financial Sorcery; 2) Work through an ego magic session by the end of April; 3) Construct a Jupiter talisman to neutralize any detrimental affects resulting from a Jupiter retrograde in my natal chart.

Writing

Continue blogging with a minimum of 5 posts on Blacklight a week. Hope to have one essay a month to submit to other sites like Witchvox. [I need to find ways to overcome writer’s block …]

I need to work on this a lot more. This post I am writing at present is the start of a major effort to get some momentum build up t writing for this blog again. I have realized that much of my writing is responsive — that I read something else and write a reaction to it. I was trying to move away from that and produce “original content.” Well, that isn’t an effective writing style for me, apparently. I need to do what works, so I will be doing more reaction pieces. I don’t know about any articles just yet.

I did find a way to deal with writer’s block, compliments of a very simple spell Walter shared with me.

Work to promote Blacklight more. Work to promote other blogs in the hope that those authors will return the favor. Have a Tumblr dedicated to this purpose by the end of January.[I am currently queuing posts from other blogs on my Tumblr and will continue the process. I may also regularly of semi-regularly post links to my own blog. I set up a Tumblog for the purpose of mutual blog prohibition and no one seemed interested. That idea has been abandoned. For now.]

This idea is officially scrapped. I will promote this blog via Twitter and Tumblr links.

Have a short story completed by the End of March.

I have a few ideas, but aside from a fun story about a Discordian kangaroo, I haven’t actually produced. Maybe by the end of April? I did enjoy the exercise of having people suggest ideas and writing silly stories from those. I might do more of those.

Have an outline for a novel ready by the end of October. Seriously consider participating in NaNoWriMo.

Still working on this. Depending on what else I have on my plate, this timeline could still work. I have a good idea and I’m working it out pretty well.

Fitness

Oh, do I even need to embarrass myself here?

Art

Budget and plan for guitar lessons by April.

I actually have a friend who is willing to teach me guitar staring in about a week or so, and he will do so for little or no money. It probably helps that I did his wedding. Unfortunately, he doesn’t play classical guitar — while Pauline and I can learn blues and classic rock just fine, he won’t be able to teach me some of the more complicated classical of Spanish pieces.

Resume Brewing wine by February. At least one 5 gallon batch every two months or one one gallon batch every month.

Ingredients for wine are expensive. Depending on how much money my additional jobs bring in, this may not be plausible until June.

Take up sculpting again. Start with sculpy. Hoping for at least one piece a month.

This is also expensive. I cannot afford materials. I will undertake this as soon as feasible.

Start photography again. Going to try for one roll of film/shooting session a month, depending on costs.

The photography thing is going to have to wait. I may take some more digital pictures with my phone, but doing actual photo shoots with the 35mm are beyond my time and financial abilities.

Socializing

Tumblr doesn’t count.

The hell it doesn’t.

One phone call to a friend a day. [Going to make more effort to call Facebook friends. I may have to readjust this goal due to work schedule conflicts, though. It may not be practical to talk to someone everyday if I work nights and they work days.]

This has not gone well.I text a few people every couple of days. Mostly Garnet and another lady friend that I have yet to give an appropriate designation on this blog. I’ve gotten in touch with an old coworker from long, long ago (who I shall designate Pearl, for reasons) and we talk on Facebook occasionally.

One visit to a friend every two weeks at least

Been seeing Walter and Garnet on about this schedule. Maybe get a few more people in there.

Involvement in at least one Pagan meet-up or event every two months

This has yet to happen, but it needs to. I need to establish myself more.

Plan for Heartland Pagan Festival in May. Maybe bring someone along.Have someone who wants to come along, at least for a day pass. Nope, Opal hates me and isn’t talking to me anymore.

Thanks to my income tax return, I will be able to afford to go. Hooray for Heartland!

Attempt to schedule at least every other Sabbat with the local coven I visit with. [Need to plan ahead. Work schedule conflicts are the worst here.]

Just attended Ostara. This is actually going well.

Start dating again. It’s past time. At bare minimum one a month. [This is going to be tough. I don’t readily meet new people. This is … complicated. We’ll see.]

I think I’ve been dating. Met a few girls for drinks. But they’re not serious dates. I’m just meeting up with friends, and there is not effort to “get anywhere.” It’s fun, but I’m not getting laid or anything. And this seems okay for now. Still, I’d like to step this up a bit.

Consider Skyping with internet people. I should make you all earn the honor. My Skype account is, however, readily visible on my Tumblr. [This would be fun. I’d love to talk to some of you.]

Had a few Tinychat sessions, and they were a blast! Hope to do it more often.

So that’s a lot of personal stuff going on. But when you really look at it, I’m actually doing pretty well. I haven’t met some of the deadlines, and there are goals that I haven’t met, but those goals were largely means to ends that I achieved through other methods.

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